Large-Scale Preparation for Multicolour Stimulus-Responsive Room-Temperature Phosphorescence Paper Via Cellulose Heterogeneous Reaction.

The large-scale preparation of sustainable room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials, particularly those with stimulus-response properties, is attractive but remains challenging. This study developed a facile heterogeneous B-O covalent bonding strategy to anchor arylboronic acid chromophores to cellulose chains using pure water as a solvent, resulting in multicolour RTP cellulose. The rigid environment provided by the B-O covalent bonds and hydrogen bonds promote the triplet population and suppress quenching, leading to an excellent lifetime of 1.42 s for the target RTP cellulose. By increasing the degree of chromophore conjugation, the afterglow colours could be tuned from blue to green and then to red. Motivated by this finding, a papermaking production line was built to convert paper pulp reacted with an arylboronic acid additive into multicolour RTP paper on a large scale. Furthermore, the RTP paper was sensitive to water because of the destruction of hydrogen bonds and the stimuli-response could be repeated in response to water/heat stimuli. The RTP paper can be folded into 3D afterglow origami handicrafts and anti-counterfeiting packing boxes or used for stimulus-responsive information encryption. This success paves the way for the development of large-scale, eco-friendly, and practical stimuli-responsive RTP materials. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.